English

Adjective

timely ‎(comparative timelier, superlative timeliest)

1. Done at the proper time.
2. Happening or appearing at the proper time.
   • Milton

     The timely dew of sleep.

   • 2011 October 20, Jamie Lillywhite, “Tottenham 1 - 0 Rubin Kazan”, in BBC Sport:

     The athletic Walker, one of Tottenham's more effective attacking elements with his raids from right-back, made a timely intervention after Rose had been dispossessed and even Aaron Lennon was needed to provide an interception in the danger zone to foil another attempt by the Russians.

3. (obsolete) Keeping time or measure.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (done at the proper time): well-timed
• (happening or appearing at the proper time): opportune, seasonable

Antonyms

• (done at the proper time): badly timed, ill-timed
• (happening or appearing at the proper time): inopportune, unseasonable

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

timely ‎(comparative more timely, superlative most timely)

1. (archaic) In good time; early, quickly.
   • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p. 587:

     ‘If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different.’

2. (obsolete) At the right time; seasonably.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

     And this we shall more readily perform, if we timely survey our knowledge, impartially singling out those encroachments, which junior compliance and popular credulity hath admitted.

See also

• seasonably
• tidely